Everyone loves the magic of three-dimensional drawings. You can use these step-by-step illusion drawing tutorials to create amazing pictures that will boggle the minds of your family and friends.
10 Easy Illusion Drawing Ideas
Impossible Trident
A trident is a three-pronged forked shape. This one consists of three cylinders that connect in an impossible way. Notice how the shading fades as the top of the object becomes the space between the tines
Impossible Heart
This heart seems to be crafted from a twisted strand of a four-sided material. But the way it twists is impossible since the front becomes the side and vice versa as the shape continues.
3D Hole
You can render a 3D landscape by carefully angling lines, including those that indicate the wooden boards of the floor. Shade a trapezoidal region inside the rectangle, and you have a convincing hole in the ground.
Impossible Square
At first glance, it's a square. At second, it appears to be a cube. Closer observation shows that it is a twisted shape that can't really exist. Depending on how you look at it, both the top and bottom appear to be closer to you.
Impossible Triangle
This triangle is made out of "L" shaped segments. The way that the sides seem to connect cannot happen. A light, dark, and darker shading enhances the effect.
Impossible Stairs
Some of the most famous impossible artwork involves impossible stairs - stairs that appear to go both up and down depending on how you look at it.
Impossible Cube
A cube is created with twelve straight lines. In this image, the lines are each four-sided. They appear to cross over one another, in front of and behind, in a way that cannot exist in the real world.
Impossible Star
This five-pointed star is constructed from straight lines that are interwoven with one another. Yet, the lines pass in front of others that they should be behind, and vice versa.
Impossible Hexagon
Having extra sides does not make this impossible shape more difficult to draw. Like the the triangle, the twisted shape consists of "L" shaped lines - just with a more obtuse angle.
3D Stairs
Unlike the impossible stairs above, these could exist in the real world. Some of the lines indicate a depression in the overall shape, while others protrude to form steps.
More About Drawing Illusions
Each of these "impossible" illusions starts with a simple shape - a heart, squire, triangle, star, hexagon, or cube. Lines are placed in such a way as to suggest depth.
What, though, makes these shapes impossible? They are called impossible objects or undecidable figures because they cannot actually exist as real, solid objects.
Is that a little hard to wrap your mind around? Really, impossible shapes are just like any other 3D drawing. The placement of the lines tricks the brain into believing that the flat picture has depth.
Don't forget to shade your impossible drawings. You can do so with your pencil or use different colors. When you make coordinating sides of the object darker than the rest, the perception of shadow enhances the visual effect.
See a Google Web Story of this Illusion Drawing Ideas Blog Post.